Turbines that are used in electric or other power plants can be very expensive. Because of this expense, it is desirable to operate such turbines to optimize their performance. The performance can be optimized by selecting an appropriate configuration for the turbine based, for example, on knowledge of the financial information relating to the operation of the turbine. The financial information may include the cost of fuel, tax rate, and annual hours that the turbine is in operation. When the turbine is first installed at a power plant, the configuration can be tailored (e.g., selecting certain options for the turbine) to optimize performance (e.g., maximize the profit) at that time. Various conditions, however, can occur during the life of the turbine that may result in the turbine performing less than optimally. For example, the performance of the turbine may degrade over time as a result of normal wear. As the performance degrades, the assumptions that initially resulted in the turbine operating optimally may no longer be valid. As another example, enhanced configuration options may become available from time to time. The adding of an enhanced configuration option to the turbine could result in even better performance. Thus, a turbine that was performing optimally is now no longer performing optimally as a result of the configuration options that are now available. As another example, the cost of fuel may change over time in a way that may mean that certain configuration options would now result in more optimal performance.
Unfortunately, it has been traditionally very difficult for the operators of the power plants to evaluate the performance of a turbine. The operator may elicit the help of the manufacturers of the turbine to determine whether the performance of the turbine can be improved. When the manufacturer receives a request from an operator for a performance evaluation, a representative of the manufacturer would need to first collect the configuration information for the turbine and information on the various enhancement options that are available for that turbine. Once this information has been collected, the representative could calculate the resulting performance characteristics of various enhancement options. For example, the representative may calculate that a certain option would result in a four percent increase in the generated output. The output (e.g., in kilowatts) of the turbine is one performance characteristic. The representative would then notify the operator of the results. The operator could then perform financial calculations to determine which option, if any, can be used to improve the overall performance of the turbine. The accuracy of the performance calculation, of course, depends, in part, on the accuracy of the configuration information that is available to the manufacturer. Often times, the configuration information available to a manufacturer may be outdated. The operator may have changed the configuration of the turbine (e.g., by purchasing an option from a third party) without informing the manufacturer. As a result, it is both difficult and time-consuming for the operator to accurately assess how to configure a turbine to optimize performance.
It would be desirable to have a system in which an operator could accurately identify the configuration for a turbine that would tend to optimize its performance.
One embodiment of the present invention uses the Internet to communicate between plant operators and manufacturers. The Internet comprises a vast number of computers and computer networks that are interconnected through communication links. The interconnected computers exchange information using various services, such as electronic mail, Gopher, and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). The WWW service allows a server computer system (i.e., web server or web site) to send web pages of information to a remote client computer system. The remote client computer system can then display the web pages. Each resource (e.g., computer or web page) of the WWW is uniquely identifiable by a Uniform Resource Locator (“URL”). To view a specific web page, a client computer system specifies the URL for that web page in a request (e.g., a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) request). The request is forwarded to the web server that supports that web page. When that web server receives the request, it may send a static web page or may prepare and send a dynamically generated web page to the client computer system. When the client computer system receives that web page, it typically displays the web page using a browser. A browser is a special-purpose application program that effects the requesting of web pages and the displaying of web pages.
Currently, web pages are typically defined using HyperText Markup Language (“HTML”). HTML provides a standard set of tags that define how a web page is to be displayed. When a user indicates to the browser to display a web page, the browser sends a request to the server computer system to transfer to the client computer system an HTML document that defines the web page. When the requested HTML document is received by the client computer system, the browser displays the web page as defined by the HTML document. The HTML document contains various tags that control the displaying of text, graphics, controls, and other features. The HTML document may contain URLs of other web pages available on that server computer system or other server computer systems.
The World Wide Web is especially conducive to conducting electronic commerce. Many web servers have been developed through which vendors can advertise and sell product. The World Wide Web is increasingly being used to conduct business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce. For example, businesses are providing web sites through which other businesses can order products and services, obtain product information, communicate, and so on. B2B electronic commerce has the potential of greatly increasing the efficiency of B2B commerce. For example, businesses may be able to substantially reduce their sales force and provide more timely product information to their customers via the World Wide Web.